Ven. Pomnyun's Answer to "How Do I Stop Worrying All the Time?” Selection from a Dharma Q&A session at Jogyesa Temple, Seoul (June 14, 2019)

Questioner : I actually live in New York but I’ve been here since March. And being here I’ve just learned a lot about trying to reflect a lot about my state of mind and how I think. And I’ve found myself being in this like, it’s not all the time but sometimes I’ll just spiral down in this state of mind that’s so negative and just full of stress and worries. And I’ll think about the things that have happened in the past that just seems so traumatic to me and I’ll just replay them over and over again in mind. And it just gets to a point where I’ll feel so paralized in thought and I can’t even live in the moment or know what’s going on. So my question is just how do you think it’s best to mediate my own mind and come to a state of peace with myself and not have to always focus on the negative and worries. I feel like that’s a lot easier said than done. Because sometimes it seems uncontrollable, these thoughts that come into my mind.

OK, so you gave me two options but I still don’t know which like…

There’s definitely times where I feel like I don’t want to think about what I’m thinking about, and I’ll be like OK, I’ll think about something else. But then I feel like it always cycles back and it’s something that will always kind of just stay in the back of my mind.